Achievements in industrial development

To assess mastery of technology, Korean industrial performance can
be taken as an indirect indicator.

Thus, in steel, the Republic of Korea developed from small-scale
production with electric furnaces in 1960 to being one of the largest
steel-producing countries in the world by the late 1970s, with a capacity of
13.54 million M/T of ingot in 1985. Beginning in 1973, the petrochemical
industry achieved self-sufficiency - about 80 per cent of imports had been
substituted - and had an export potential of downstream industries.

The electronics industry recorded phenomenal growth in a little
over two decades, with the following landmarks: black-and-white television in
the late 1960s, colour television in the early 1970s, and other consumer and
industrial electronics in the mid- and late 1970s. In 1985, the export of
electronics reached US$4.4 billion, representing 15 per cent of the total.

Up to the mid-1970s the shipbuilding industry in the Republic of
Korea was small, but by the end of 1985 a maximum capacity of 1 million DWT was
reached, placing the country in the world's top rank.

Automobile assembly began in the mid-1960s with completely
knocked-down components. Real mass production began only in the mid-1970s, with
200,000 passenger vehicles manufactured in 1979 and 30,000 exported. Production
capacity gradually increased to 685,000 per annum in 1985, with a local content
ratio of 90 per cent. The automobile industry has now grown to be one of the
important export industries, North America being a principal
market.